Poor white children lack motivation to succeed at school, warns think-tank
Laura McCardle
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
A lack of self-motivation and concentration could be to blame for consistent underperformance among disadvantaged white children, a think-tank has said.
Ally Paget, a researcher at Demos, said that low attainment is often caused by a lack of "values or character", and that to overcome this all children should be taught skills such as how to be self-motivated.
Her comments come as the education select committee publishes its Underachievement in Education by White Working Class Children report, which shows that white boys and girls from disadvantaged backgrounds are continuing to achieve lower outcomes than peers from other major ethnic groups.
The report shows that underachievement is highest among white girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, this group performing worse than white disadvantaged boys.
The committee also found that the gap between disadvantaged white children and their wealthier peers has remained stagnant over the past seven years, while the attainment of poor children from other ethnic backgrounds is improving faster than that of disadvantaged white children.
Paget said: “Too often, low attainment comes down to students lacking the skills, character traits or values that they need in order to learn – rather than pure ability or subject knowledge.
“The Education Secretary sparked a lot of discussion of ‘British values’ – what we should be talking about are values that help pupils from working class backgrounds to success, things like paying attention in class, self-motivation and organisation.
“Seeing disadvantaged white girls falling behind their educational attainment comes as a surprise and suggests the current methods aren’t working.”
However, Graham Stuart, chair of the committee, said the cause of underperformance among disadvantaged white children is largely unknown.
He said: “We don’t know how much of the under performance is due to poor attitudes to school, a lack of work ethic or weak parenting.
“What is certain is that great schools make a significant difference in turning poor children’s education around.
“The problem of poor, white British under-attainment is real and the gap between those children and their better-off classmates starts in their earliest school years and then widens as they get older.”
Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said schools do their best to overcome disadvantage.
She said: “It is, however, the case that children from disadvantaged backgrounds will not be as school-ready as others for the simple reason if you have not had a meal in the evening, slept in your own bed or had breakfast that will impact on your ability to learn.
“As well as asking schools to enable children to ‘be resilient’ in the face of poverty, the select committee should therefore identify wider policies which would reduce poverty.”
Sonia Blandford, chief executive of Achievement for All, said raising educational aspirations is key to improving outcomes.
She said: “The solution is a fully integrated system that focuses on enabling every child to be the best they can be regardless of background, challenge and need.
“Our work in 2,000 schools has demonstrated that a partnership between leaders, teachers, parents and pupils within a formalised framework can produce significant outcomes for all vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, including white working class boys.”